No lathe/no mill steam engines from brass tubing

Terrywerm

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I stumbled on these plans for a simple steam engine, made from brass tubing. No lathe or mill required, just a drill press and some hand tools, and some soldering. It would be a great first engine project to work on with a child or grandchild, and it might be just the thing to get a youngster involved in our hobby. They are from the July 1970 issue of Popular Mechanics and you can view them here: http://books.google.com/books?id=mtgDAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA154&lpg=PA154#v=onepage&q&f=false

Another gentleman made one and posted a video on YouTube, you can view it here:

[video=youtube;vzMsR4eKgqY]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vzMsR4eKgqY[/video]


Some years back my eldest son and I built a steam engine from brass and copper tubing, but I do not know where I got the plans from. I have searched all over the net for them with no luck. I guess I may have to make a set of drawings from the original engine and post them here. It was a vertical wobbler with a single acting cylinder, but the crankshaft was at the top, and it used a rotary valve built into the crankshaft. The engine exhaust came out of the crankshaft on the flywheel end. It was certainly different and the only one I've ever seen like it. Guess I'll have to dig it out and get some pics of it and post them here, maybe someone will know where the plans came from.
 
Another gentleman made one and posted a video on YouTube, you can view it here:

[video=youtube;vzMsR4eKgqY]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vzMsR4eKgqY[/video]
Some years back my eldest son and I built a steam engine from brass and copper tubing, but I do not know where I got the plans from. I have searched all over the net for them with no luck. I guess I may have to make a set of drawings from the original engine and post them here. It was a vertical wobbler with a single acting cylinder, but the crankshaft was at the top, and it used a rotary valve built into the crankshaft. The engine exhaust came out of the crankshaft on the flywheel end. It was certainly different and the only one I've ever seen like it. Guess I'll have to dig it out and get some pics of it and post them here, maybe someone will know where the plans came from.

Terry.
I would definitely like to see that engine with the exh in the crank. That would be a pretty novel project to build and run too. If you can find any more info, don't forget to post it all up for us to follow and perhaps even build one too...

Bob
 
The engine with the exhaust in the crank was built for and with my son, and it belongs to him. I'll see about getting hold of it for some pics and a brief video. Since it was made entirely of brass tubing, it was a little bit leaky and put on quite a show when run on steam. It was also a rather fragile thing the way it was soldered together. This may not be very clear, but two of the tubes that made up the frame were also steam passages. As a result this thing had gobs of steam clearance, but it was fun to watch it run.

I remember how it was built, and could even design a new one from what I remember of it. :idea2: Maybe I can come up with a slightly better design that isn't quite so fragile!

Add another project to the list!! :banghead:
 
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